Page 115 of Lady of the Lake

“With the Dream Stalker,” Raphael says acidly. “Who invaded Avalon Tower on a fire-breathing dragon? That’s who you want me to work with?”

“I mean, the dragon invasion was my idea,” I say, “and Talan’s really not that bad.”

“I’m humbled,” Talan says dryly. “Truly.”

“What about the prophecy?” Raphael says. “The descendants of Morgan will destroy Avalon Tower?—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Tana says, “it’s just a prophecy. A prophecy can be interpreted in many forms. It can mislead. Who even knows what destroying Avalon Tower means? Does it mean the castle? The concept?”

“Its leadership?” Darius suggests.

“It could mean destroying the Pendragons,” I say, thinking of my deal with Mordred.

“Well, there you go,” Tana says. “Are we going to argue about prophecy semantics or do something about this plague?”

“Listen.” I raise my hands, placating. “It’s notjustthe plague. In about three days, Auberon is going to swoop into England with a legion of dragons and burn Bristol to the ground, so let’s stay focused on our real enemies, shall we?”

For a long time, no one says anything. Finally, Raphael sheathes his sword.

Talan follows suit.

Serana sighs and puts down her axe. “We’ve been fighting the Iron Legion for days. We couldn’t get anywhere near Merlin’s Tower until today.”

“They had the whole tower barricaded,” adds Darius, “but your dragon caused enough chaos to break it up.”

Serana’s freckled cheeks go pink. “We probably have a few minutes until some of their lot charge up here. So, like, let’s get the fuck on with things, yeah?”

“How were you planning to destroy the plague?” Raphael asks.

“We were arguing about that,” Darius says. “I figured we could bury the containers.”

“I thought we could spill it into the lake,” Serana adds.

I blink. “You wanted to spill a deadly plague into Camelot’s drinking water?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m not a bloodyscientist,Nia.”

“According to the notes I found,” I say, “The plague is sensitive to high temperatures. I’m not sure how high those temperatures have to be, but there’s almost nothing hotter than dragon fire.”

Nivene brightens. “Good plan. So, where’s the dragon? Last I saw, she was kind of circling overhead, breathing fire. I’d hoped she might burn Tarquin, but I’m probably not that lucky.”

“She won’t be able to land,” says Darius, “unless we can capture the anti-dragon gun.”

“Fuck,” I whisper.

“We can take control of the gun on top of Shalott Tower,” Raphael says. “If we disable the gun, could she land on the turret there?”

Talan frowns. “Yes, if no one is shooting at her, the turret is wide enough for Tarasque to land. I can summon her there.”

I bend to pick up the bag of vials, taking care not to accidentally shatter them. Everyone watches me like I might, too.

“Be careful with those things, will you?” Nivene says. “If one vial breaks, everyone here is dead.”

I swallow. “Yeah, I know, Nivene.”

“I’ll lead us to Shalott Tower,” Serana says. “I know a route where we won’t run into the Iron Legion.”

I walk quickly after them, cradling the vials.

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